Re: PROPOSAL: Repurpose one key and reserve it for third-party packages

[Philip K.]

Gregory Heytings <gregory@heytings.org> writes:

> [Why did you write your first mail off-list, your second one Cc'd to
> emacs-devel, and your third one Cc'd to help-gnu-emacs?]

Sorry about that, forgot to Cc in the first message, and then I resent
the message to the wrong list.

>>> When you install a package whose purpose is to change the user
>>> interface, you expect it will change the user interface, don't you? 
>>> When you install an ad-blocker in your browser, you expect it will
>>> block ads, don't you?
>>
>> Again, the browser is a different situation.
>
> For most users, it is not.  I guess you think the browser or GIMP are
> different situations, because you see them as mere tools, whereas you
> see Emacs as "more than a tool".  That's not the case for most Emacs
> users, for them Emacs is just a tool.  FWIW, when I open another
> editor, I see and use it as a mere tool for another task.

No, the difference is that Emacs is a interactive computing environment
while GIMP and browsers are programs with extension models. But that's
not my main point:

All in all, I don't have a problem with Emacs being able to support it,
but as I've shown with the example in my last message, it doesn't need
to be done automatically, nor does it require a separate key. It's
ultimately up to the user what he or she wants to do, and clever
behind-your-back customization seems more harmful and confusing than the
current state of affairs.

>> This kind of aggressive behaviour just makes harder because you
>> don't know what is going on. This is how you confuse newcomers.
>
> Regular users don't want to know what is going on, they don't care,
> and shouldn't have to care; for them an editor is just a tool for
> another task.

I don't like the notion of a "regular user", but in principle I
agree. The open question is what this means. I don't think users should
be obstructed and confused, and I fear that what you propose has the
danger to do just that.

-- 
        Philip K.

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